Insight

Invest2Innovate supports startup communities in growth markets, and has been operating in Pakistan since 2011. We believe that startup communities are forming all over the world, but more fragile or nascent markets can disable and hinder that entrepreneurial growth. At i2i, we believe the next great innovators can and should come out of countries like Pakistan, Iran, and Nigeria, but need the resources and proper ecosystem to get there. That’s where we come in.

i2i takes an ecosystem approach in our work. We don’t believe you can drop an incubator or accelerator in a vacuum and expect to see success stories. i2i works with all stakeholders to not only support entrepreneurs, but also facilitate access to capital, mitigate risk for investors & support players, and strengthen the policy environment for businesses in these countries.

We value trust, community, and collaboration – the tenets of a strong ecosystem.

Incubate – Invest2Innovate finds, selects & vets entrepreneurs for the i2i Accelerator, an annual four-month program that provides business support and access to mentors and investment. Since 2012, i2i has accelerated 21 startups in Pakistan, which have gone on to raise over $3.7M in capital (of which our female founded and co-founded companies have raised 80%!), create over 1000 jobs, scale their businesses, and deepen their social and economic impact in the country. i2i also has 35+ mentors and 15+ investors in our network, who are all local and successful Pakistani entrepreneurs dedicated to supporting innovative startups in Pakistan. i2i has licensed our curriculum to power and support other programs, including the Grameenphone Accelerator in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the National Incubation Centre in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Invest – The local angel investor landscape in Pakistan has grown significantly over the last five years, with many individual investors collaborating to invest in startups and launching funds. Invest2Innovate works closely with these local investors to foster that community in Pakistan, AKA i2i Angels. At the end of each i2i Accelerator, our entrepreneurs pitch before an audience of these investors. i2i also engages our angel investor community as judges in the selection process of our Accelerator batch as well as mentors during our program in order to build trust and deeper relationships between investors and entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

Insight – In the last three years, i2i has worked with a number of stakeholders to conduct research and analysis of Pakistan’s current entrepreneurship ecosystem. i2i has released the Pakistan Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Report, the most comprehensive landscape analysis of Pakistan’s startup community, the Pakistan Startup Map, the first visualized map of the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and the Investor Toolkit, a 101 guide on how to invest in Pakistan.

Our Insight vertical releases monthly analyses on emerging trends in Pakistan’s startup landscape as well as deep-dive research products. i2i is moving into collecting real and raw data to further develop a quantitative lens to better understand the Pakistan market. Our vision for Insight is simple: to leverage information and data to see more success stories emerge from these markets.